“So, you got it?” Tommy asked his father over the phone.

“Yeah… I think so.” Bob replied as he hefted the box onto his desk from his lap. His birthday gift from his son had arrived, and Bob had completely forgotten about it since resuming his life back at the precinct. Cutting open the package, Bob was presented with a small black box and a small visor-like object.

“Alright, so the small black box is actually the main processing unit. Imagine the computer tower part of a computer is essentially what it is.” Tommy continued over the phone. “The other item is the immersion headset, kind of like the monitor portion of the computer.”

“Huh,” said Bob, unsure of what to do with his gift.

“Plug the black box into the wall, then plug the headset into the box. Everything else will do what it’s supposed to.” Tommy's voice was getting more and more excited.

“Right, then what?” Bob asked, still confused.

“You’re going to want to lie on your bed, put the headset on, then say ‘Log on,’” responded Tommy.

“And that will take me to the video game you bought me?” Bob inquired.

“Sure will,” replied Tommy and he could actually be heard smiling over the phone. “I’ll call you from inside the game in a few minutes. Give it a whirl!”

Bob really wasn’t interested but decided to humor his son who’d spent god-knows-what on this piece of equipment. With the call ending, Bob followed Tommy’s instructions and then hoisted himself into his bed. It took him a few moments to get the visor on his head correctly and figured out the glass portion of the visor sat over his eyes like glasses.

“Well…here goes nothing.” Bob then said aloud. Then deliberately stated, “Log on,” and the world suddenly shifted then went dark.

—————

Various beeping sounds could be heard, then light slowly grew and Bob could see again. Things soon became almost too bright, and Bob had to cover his eyes with his hands. His hands…where was he? He wasn’t lying on his bed any longer. He seemed to be standing in an endless white expanse. He was standing?! He looked down and saw legs. He assumed they were legs, though they looked like mannequin limbs. Upon closer inspection, his arms matched the design of his legs. He tried taking a step and the legs moved. Was he walking again? What was this?

“Call from…Thomas,” a mechanical female voice declared startling Bob. How did he answer the call? The female voice repeated herself.

“Uh…answer?” Bob said, unsure of himself.

“Hey, Dad!” Tommy’s face suddenly appeared in front of Bob’s head, floating in a box, which also startled him.

“What is this, Tommy?” Bob continued to look around confused.

“This is the main lobby, imagine like your home screen on your computer.”

“But, there’s nothing here,” Bob said exasperatedly.

“Well, it’s a brand new system! Everything is still loading, but frankly, there’s not much to begin with anyway.”

“Okay…well, what do I do?”

“So you’re going to want to load the game that’s already on the system.”

“How do I do that?” Bob was starting to get used to the sensation of this weird new system.

“You’re going to say ‘Load Program; Hero City.’”

“Hero City?” Bob asked incredulously.

“Yeah, it’s a brand new VRMMORPG.” Bob stared blankly at Tommy’s face in response; his bodily features were slowly being loaded onto his avatar. “It’s a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game,” Tommy continued. “It’s a fully immersive video game, where you get to play with a ton of other people.”

“Oh, I see.” Bob looked back at his legs. “And…I get to play like this?” Tommy smiled wide in response.

“Yes, the visor takes your nerve signals and sends them to the computer system instead of your body. Even though your real body can’t utilize the signals to your legs, this system can translate them to your avatar.”

“Oh my,” Bob said in reply as tears began to form on his avatar’s face.

“This was one of the main reasons I wanted to get this system for you. Even though you may not be able to walk in the real world, you could escape here to this virtual world and continue to walk, run, leap or even fly!”

“Wow,” Bob managed to get out between sobs. “Thank you so much, son. This means so much.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Tommy said sincerely. “But this is only one part of the gift. Load the game!”

“Load program, Hero City,” Bob declared, complying with his son’s request. A small terminal slowly erupted from the ground in front of Bob. The front face presented a small keyboard and screen.

“So, you’re going to create a username, this will allow you to log in. It won’t necessarily be your character’s name though.” Tommy continued while Bob walked up to the terminal. The screen presented him with a bold logo that read ‘Hero City’ with an area to enter his own information under it. “Now before you jump in,” Tommy continued, “To access the log out menu, all you have to do is say ‘menu.’ Then a small menu will appear that you can interact with through your fingers.”

“Thanks for that,” Bob replied.

“Now I’m not sure what will happen when you enter the game, but from what I’ve heard it should be quite a bit of fun.” Tommy smiled at his Dad. “If you need to get hold of me, just say ‘Call Thomas’ and I’ll get the call anywhere, alright?”

“Thanks again, son. This really means a lot to me.”

“No worries. Have fun!” Tommy smiled, then his face disappeared as the call disconnected.

“Here we go.” Bob declared to himself. He finished creating an account, and then selected the ‘Login’ option on the screen. Like a dream, Bob now found himself in a small room with a desk, a computer and a chair. Following his instincts, Bob sat in front of the computer and was presented with a prompt.

Bob considered this for a moment and decided he wanted to experience this game the way it was meant to be played and selected Option 2.

Bob stared at the small computer screen worried about how exactly the game would be testing him. Bob really had no prior knowledge of video games, and was becoming reluctant to continue, but pushed that aside and selected ‘Yes.’ The desk in front of him immediately vanished, and Bob now found himself in the dark inside a small storefront. Maybe it was a deli or a small market? He wasn’t completely sure, but looking down at himself he found that he was outfitted in a police uniform.

Before the shock could set in, he heard a small crashing sound from the back room behind the counter. His previous experience and instincts kicked in, he quickly drew his pistol from its holster and gingerly leapt over the counter. From behind the door he could hear whispered shouting, and various items crashing to the floor.

Taking a deep breath, Bob pushed the door open and aimed the gun toward the noise. To his surprise he found a man, holding a young woman against a counter choking her. It was the woman who’d been knocking the items over in a herculean effort to free herself.

“Stop! Police!” Bob shouted as he had many times before, pointing his weapon at the assailant. The man looked straight into Bob’s eyes and smiled. The woman’s face growing bluer and bluer.

“Sh…. oooo…. t-him.” The young woman managed to get out. Bob knew he needed to take action, and his training taught him that he needed to save that woman. Raising his pistol higher he took aim at the assailant and fired his weapon. Upon impact, the man immediately released the woman who then dropped to the floor gasping for air.

Before Bob could make it over to the young lady, the room shifted once more and he now found himself at the very top of a large office building. Looking around, Bob was unsure of how he was to proceed. With the wind whipping past his ears, he finally heard something that drew his attention.

On a neighboring building was a small child screaming for help, but at this distance, Bob couldn’t see what was wrong. Still deciding to take action, Bob moved as quickly as he could to the side of the building nearest the child. Still unsure as to what was ailing the child, Bob did not know how to help, but as if to answer the question, three floors below where the child sat, the windows suddenly burst out and flame erupted on all sides slowly grasping and reaching up towards the child.

Quickly gauging the distance between the buildings, Bob ran back a few meters to get ready to jump. As soon as he’d made enough distance, he ran as fast as he could to the ledge and leaped, quickly realizing that his jump was not sufficient as he began to dip below the top of the building.

Before panic could begin to fester, Bob splashed into a pool of some liquid as if to save him from the fall. Opening his eyes, Bob could not figure out where he was, or even where the surface began, he couldn’t see anything other than water, and this time panic began to set in. Without much thought, Bob started to swim upwards as quickly as he could, slowly feeling the breath draining from him. He knew he would need air soon and he continued to swim but felt no nearer to any surface, if there even was one. He knew he couldn’t give up and continued to swim upwards.

The seconds passed like hours as he continued to swim as fast as he could upward. Where was the surface?! There had to be a way, so Bob continued forth as his lungs began to burn like he’d inhaled fire. How much longer did he have? The moments crept by and as soon as he was sure he would lose consciousness, he found himself back in the room with the desk and computer.

Was he done? What had just happened? Everything had happened so fast, his brain had had almost zero time to process everything. In most of the instances Bob had acted on pure instinct. Moving towards the desk Bob sat down back in front of the computer and saw a new prompt.

Bob looked at the screen displayed in front of him. He really had no idea what any of the information meant, but he did feel as though ‘Strength’ was a good option. With this in mind, he selected ‘Yes’ and a new prompt appeared.

A superhero, huh? Bob now understood why his son had purchased this game for him. Now that he was always called a hero, at least this way he could sometimes feel the part. Playing the part would be interesting, and Bob could now see why this game would end up being a tremendous amount of fun.

What should he be called though? He’d always liked superheroes as a kid, the comics, the TV shows… but who would he be? Bob sat and stared at the small computer for several long minutes before typing in his desired name and hitting ‘enter.’

Bob looked up and noticed that a door had materialized on the other side of the desk. He quickly stood up as the desk, chair and computer slowly disintegrated. The door wasn’t anything special, but Bob found himself a little nervous. Grasping the door handle, he pulled it open and stepped through.